Community Corner

East Hampton Airport's Control Tower Goes Online

The new seasonal control tower at East Hampton Airport will operate through September 30

The new seasonal control tower for the East Hampton Airport went online Wednesday morning.

The control tower, manned by two FAA licensed air traffic controllers will operate from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. through September 30, to ensure increased regulation and safety during the airport’s busiest months, the Sag Harbor Express reported. Now, all planes landing on the three runways of East Hampton Airport will be required to maintain contact with air traffic control at a frequency of 125.225 megahertz. Before this point, all pilots landing at the airport were required to follow visual flight rules during take off and landing.

The tower itself, costing $300,000 annually in staffing and maintenance, represents the first time East Hampton will exercise effective control over its surrounding airspace. The town’s area, according to the Sag Harbor Express, is classified as “Class D” airspace, extends 5.5 miles in all directions from the airport up to height of 2,600 feet.

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Though the FAA approved the town’s plan to build a control tower in September of 2011, installation has been a gradual process.

During the 2012 summer season, according to the Sag Harbor Express, a temporary control tower operated through October on a temporary permit pending FAA approval.

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The new addition is not without its critics, the Express reported, who see a control tower as a sign of increasing traffic and potential noise pollution.  A plan laid out by the East Hampton Village Preservation society calls for the town to stop accepting anymore funding from the FAA in order to maintain independent control over the airport’s size and rate of use.

The same plan suggests that flight plans be restricted over inland bodies of water, and that flights be prohibited in and out of East Hampton airspace outside the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. business hours, the Sag Harbor Express reported.

Increased airport usage poses safety and environmental concerns for the area, and other critics, such as the Quiet Skies Coalition, worry about the effect of both the tower and air traffic on local wildlife as well as the potential disturbances that could be caused by an increase in jet propelled aircraft and helicopters flying through East Hampton airspace. According to East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick J. Stanzione in his comment to Newsday, regardless of the new control tower, air traffic has actually leveled off, and is down 38 percent since 2007.

The FAA itself ran an environmental assessment of the control tower's effects, and reported a "finding of no significant effects". The FAA's report is available for public review at the East Hampton Airport through July 13. 


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